I went back and re-read some interesting blogs concerning the early history of Yosemite. When I was re-visisting the older blogs I remember seeing this one.

There was a historical magazine that went into California history in depth. It was called "The Pony Express" which was published in California's Gold Country in the town of Sonora in Tuolumne County.

This magazine had little known gems of history told by old timers who lived in early California pioneer and settler communities.

One was the historical account of the true Yosemite Native Americans, something many Paiutes always knew. That the early Yosemite Indian people were not the 'docile' Miwoks who were the workers for the early white settlers and gold miners, but the war like Paiutes.

This was an account of historical value regarding the true identity of the American Indians of Yosemite and the area;

From the Pony Express Periodical that dealt with Gold Mining History and Western Pioneer accounts. The Pony Express was published from the town of Sonora in Tuolumne County and dealt with all aspects of Mariposa, Tuolumne and other mining areas, plus early pioneer life through out the west

Here is the transcribed version of the story of the original Yosemite Indians that appeared in the periodical on March 1956. The Pony Express had many more references to Yosemite Indians being Paiutes, and not just this one.

YOSEMTIE INDIANS ARE OUTLAW PIUTES

Camp Barbour in 1851 produced the great frontiersman. Major James D. Savage, leader of the Mariposa Battalion, who with Andrew D. Firebaugh, chased out-law Piute Indians back into Yose-mite Valley, which led to its dis-covery. It is obvious they were not Miwoks and Diggers. They were peaceful, certainly not war-like enough to go out raiding Fort Barbour (later Fort Miller) built with soldiers armed with cap and ball muskets. Also, this is refuted by the testimony of veteran David Williamson to the Pony Express the late Williamson (born at Fort Churchill in the 1860s) whose father was an army officer, was told differently by Johnny Calico, son of Chief Winnemucca. Johnny as a kid in 1860, witnessed White Man's route up the Truckee River from Lake Pyramid, in the so-called battle of Lake Pyramidwhich was not a "battle" but a very fast route, so fast as the soldiers could get away on horse-back. His father told him that all unruly renegades in the tribe (The Piutes had no jails) had been exiled for generations over the mountains west of the big lake (which was Mono Lake). So there are your tough out-law Yosemite Indians that Savage and Firebaugh chased with their Mari-posa Battalion in 1851.

The Calico name is a well known Paiute last name.

*They were renegade Paiutes. The common people of the Mono Paiutes bragged about their exploits. They were like Robin Hood in their eyes. Chief Tenaya's band was made up of Paiutes from different bands. They were a warrior renegade band and not docile Miwoks.